Forbes rates Centum CEO Mworia highly

By Evelyn Njoroge, NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 15 – Two young Kenyan managers have been ranked among the top 10 influential men in Africa by renowned magazine, Forbes.

According to Forbes, Centum Investments Chief Executive Officer James Mworia is one of “The 10 Youngest Power Men in Africa’.

While giving accolades to the 33-year-old executive, the magazine observed that Mworia has been instrumental in pursuing Centum’s regional expansion into new territories such as Mauritius and Nigeria.

“Mworia is the chief executive officer of Centum, one of East Africa’s largest private equity firms. Centum has a cross-listing on both the Nairobi and Ugandan stock exchanges, and has substantial regional equity investments in blue chips like Coca-Cola UAP Insurance and Kenya Commercial Bank,” the magazine wrote.

Mworia joined the investment firm in 2008 when he was only 30 and it was also a time when the Kenyan economy was reeling under the weight of several shocks such as the effects of the post election violence, high food and fuel prices as well as the effects of the global recession.

Despite these challenges, Centum Investments has ridden the tides posting very impressive results.

For instance, the investment group’s profit after tax for the six months to September 2010 increased by over 1,000 percent to Sh846 million after the company made a decision to dispose off poor performing investments.

Mworia has also been very much involved in helping the company identify investment opportunities in the private equity, quoted private equity and real estate business lines.

Also mentioned in the Forbes list was TransCentury’s boss Gachau Kiuna who recently led the investment firm to the Nairobi Stock Exchange where its shares were listed by introduction.

The firm has a keen investment in the infrastructure space and specifically in the power, transport and engineering sectors which have been recording impressive growth given the demand in those industries.

The company has a vision of becoming a pan African conglomerate in the next few years and is looking to conquer potential markets such as Nigeria and Angola.

The list comes a few days after the magazine released yet another ranking featuring ‘The 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa’.

The rankings rated several Kenyan women favourably with Ory Okollo, the founder of Ushahidi, Capital Markets Authority CEO Stella Kilonzo and Google Kenya Country Manager Olga Kimani-Arara making the list.